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November 2, 2016

A candidate’s decision to accept a new job is influenced by so many factors. According to our data, professionals put a huge premium on finding the right opportunity that will advance their career and also offer challenging work. However, often one of the biggest considerations is the compensation package.

Knowing how important salary is to the conversation between candidates and recruiters, we just released LinkedIn Salary. The tool offers professionals the ability to see the factors that influence their pay for a given role -- such as years of experience, location, or company size.

Aside from empowering candidates with information, we believe this tool will benefit companies and lead to more productive candidate/recruiter conversations. Here are a few ways your recruiting team can make the best use of the new tool:

1. It will help you lead a transparent and well-informed discussion with the candidates and hiring managers:

When it comes to having the salary talk with candidates, recruiters fall into two camps -- they either prefer not to bring up compensation until the candidate sees the job as a meaningful career move, or they address salary right off the bat to make sure that the candidate’s expectations are within their budget. No matter which approach you use, LinkedIn Salary can streamline discussions and offer nuanced insights to help in negotiations.

LinkedIn Salary data will prepare you for what compensation the candidate will expect and give you a proof point that your pay is competitive. The information will also provide you with great background for a nuanced discussion about how the candidate’s skills, experience, and education may influence their pay. And in the cases when candidates are unwilling to discuss their current salary, this is a good opportunity to break through by using third-party data as a reference point.

Salary information can also be incredibly valuable in discussions with hiring managers. Consider looking up salary ranges before your next intake meeting and using this information to guide the job description and candidate profile you are sourcing. This is a great way to position yourself as a consultative partner who can influence the company’s hiring strategy.

2. It shifts your focus to developing clear messaging about the value your job/company will bring to the candidate:

While salary is a driving factor for many candidates, it certainly is not the only reason they accept a job. In fact, our data shows that factors such as career advancement, challenging work, and fulfillment beyond financial profit are very powerful motivators.

As you can see, it’s worth taking the time to analyze your company’s employee value proposition and understand how your employees benefit from working at your company -- then, make sure you communicate that information to candidates in your employer branding materials. For example, consider promoting stories of how your current employees have grown their careers within the company and had the opportunity to explore different roles. Or focus on what type of challenging problems people get to solve at work.

Crystallizing these strong benefits of your company culture will serve as a great differentiator from competitors who focus only on attractive compensation packages.